Customs Clearance in Mumbai, India (Part 5)

Entry in to the Air Cargo Customs Complex

The Clearing Agent for whom that tout worked appeared out of nowhere and started parroting the same marketing lines that his tout had already recited. I politely requested him to not waste his time as I planned to clear my goods myself. He finally took the cue and left us alone as we entered the ACC gates. I entered from the men’s gate with my gate pass and then passed that gate pass to my wife (per instructions of the security guy at the gate). My wife then used that gate pass to enter from the Women’s security gate.

We asked someone about where to receive our boxes and they pointed us to a building towards the right hand side once we walked through the ACC gates. We followed the pedestrian pathway (as much as we could through puddles and wherever there were dry patches) to arrive at the “Unaccompanied Baggage” building. That’s what it said in big letters. We then entered it and asked an uninterested police havaldar, who obviously didn’t like being disturbed, and he just directed us to an enclosed air conditioned office section behind him. I kept the Customs ToR rules printout from the Customs Website ready together with the Delivery Order papers prominently visible in my hand. I was determined not to wear the fatalistic expression of a martyr or victim and I also checked myself from wearing an arrogant and combative expression. I didn’t want to show any sign of weakness by begging for my rights and yet I wanted to be pleasant enough for the interaction with the officials.

Part 4 Part 6

 

 

Tags: Bribery, Chai Paani, Corruption, customs clearance, mumbai customs, Relocate to India, Transfer of residence, USA to India